


Letters to Betty

by Kaleidoscope_Carousel



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 18:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1194954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaleidoscope_Carousel/pseuds/Kaleidoscope_Carousel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future!fic Now a grandmother, Kate writes to Betty. Spoilers up to 209. Warnings for angst-ish (more regret than angst).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letters to Betty

  
_Dear Betty,_

_I couldn’t outrun myself Betty, no matter how hard I tried. I just had to come and tell you that. You can try to leave everything behind, but the one thing you can’t get away from is yourself._

_After the war, everything changed. Of course, you know that. The boys came home, well some of them. . . not that it mattered much for you and me. Ivan and I were married six months by then, and with Ivan Jr well on the way. And you, well, you did end up buying the house you always dreamed of. I heard you got a job in another factory, too. Automobiles or something? How silly of me, to not remember something like that. But then again, I convinced Ivan to try to find work out on the West Coast. I wanted to get as far away from Toronto as possible, far away from the way Gladys still sometimes looked at the world with such dead eyes since she received word about James, far away from Lorna who was mourning a son only half alive, and far away from you and your little whitewashed house and your housemate, Teresa._

_I was jealous. I know that now. I was also scared. Betty I was so scared, you have to believe me. Our world was so different then. And my father. . .well I don’t have to tell you about the way he brought me up. Fire and brimstone and hate. That was my daily prayer. I was terrified about what the feelings you had for me meant. And if I’m being truthful, what mine meant as well. We could both have lost our jobs, our home at the rooming house. We could have gone to jail, or even been killed. I saw what they did to you, those men outside the Jewel Box. I wasn’t ready to face that. I couldn’t risk it, not when I was only just learning to build a new life. You were always so brave. At least you seemed it to me. I knew I loved you, I just didn’t realise how much. Or in what way._

_I think others did. I think Leon, at least, and maybe Marco as well. I wonder whatever happened to them? I sent a few letters to Leon, but with four mouths to feed, and a house and garden to care for, my letters were few and far between. I heard Gladys got married. It was quite the scandal for her to up and leave with a Chinese man. Even if he was born and raised American. Trust Gladys, though. I miss her dearly._

_I think about our time together every day, the three of us in that rooming house, dancing, playing cards, or listening to Billie Holiday. Did you know I named my second son after her? Ivan refused to let me call our daughter Billie, so I made do._

_Oh Betty, I have missed you. I have missed talking to you. I am so sorry for everything that happened. I am sorry that I was so scared, and that I ran away and didn’t look back. When I heard, well, when I saw it in the paper, I knew I had to come back. I still get the Toronto rags, just to have a little piece of home. Of course, that was a few months ago but my old bones don’t handle the cold like they used to, and with Ivan gone, I needed someone to come with me. Lizzie wasn’t free until after the end of her exams. That’s my granddaughter, Elizabeth. She’s studying to be an engineer, isn’t that wonderful? She reminds me a lot of you, as well, her namesake._

_You see? I never forgot you, Betty. How could I? You were, are, my first love. I was just too paralysed and afraid to live truthfully. I thought I knew in my heart what was wrong, but it wasn’t my heart that was telling me that, it was the poison my father bred in me. But what I truly regret is that I didn’t have the strength in me to say all of this before. I did love Ivan, too, I’m not calling our life together a sham; it was just never the way I felt for you._

_I suppose there isn’t much else to say now, except for that I love you and I always will. I only wish I hadn’t waited so long._

_Goodbye Betty, I know God has a special place in Heaven, just for you._   
_Yours,  
 _Kate__

“Nana? You’re crying, are you alright?”

“Yes, Lizzie, I’m fine dear. And I think I’ve had enough sitting. I’ll be too stiff to stand up if we don’t get off this bench soon.” The old woman got carefully to her feet, leaning heavily on her granddaughter’s arm. “There, I’m up. Now what do you say we go to that pub we passed by earlier and raise a glass to my dear friend.”

“I’d say that sounds like a great idea, Nana.” The young woman sighed. “You’ll have to tell me more about her, she sounds pretty incredible.”

“She was, darling, more than I can say.”

“I wish I could’ve met her.”

“So do I,” Kate said, “So do I.” Together, the old woman and the young walked carefully through the cemetery and to the rental car parked a few meters away. Kate got creakily into the front seat, but not before sending a last glance to the stone that marked the resting place of her best friend, and deepest love. “Goodbye Betty,” she whispered, “goodbye.”


End file.
